Download The Velocity of Light - Gravitational Relativity

The Velocity of Light
A Creationist and Big Bang Dilemma
The warp drive of the spaceship Enterprise in the Star Trek television series would not
be possible according to the second postulate of Albert Einstein’s 1905 theory of special
relativity, the constant speed of light (186,000 miles per second), since matter cannot travel
faster than the speed of light. Einstein’s enshrined speed of light also poses a serious problem
for young universe/earth creationists since it would take more than 10 billion years for light to
travel from the most distant galaxies to Earth instead of less than the 7,000 years of Genesis.
Assuming that Einstein is correct about the speed of light, evangelical Christians have
developed several approaches to solve this dilemma:
(1) Old Universe Deism in which God created the universe but natural law produced our
present universe and life without the intervention of God
(2) Old Universe evolutionary theism whereby God created the universe and then gave the
universe and life order over long periods of time through the process of evolution
(3) Old Universe Progressive Creationism which advocates that God created the universe and
life over long periods of time but Adam and Eve and the Fall of Man are recent
(4) Young Universe with God creating light in transit from distant celestial bodies
(5) Young Universe but the speed of light has decreased dramatically over time to its present
speed
(6) Old Universe with relativistic time dilation for a young earth frame of reference.
Most of the old universe and even some young earth proponents must allegorize (use of nonhistorical-grammatical hermeneutics/method of interpretation) most parts of Genesis 1-11,
generally not holding to a literal six-day creation, a worldwide Noahic Flood nor a division of
mankind by languages into races at the Tower of Babel.
The master physicist, James Clerk Maxwell, developed his famous equations of
electromagnetism more than 40 years before Einstein. From these equations Maxwell derived
1 the speed of light in an electromagnetic medium of transport:
of light,
=
, where c is the speed
is the permittivity (electric field medium parameter) and
is the permeability
(magnetic field medium parameter). The permittivity and permeability are measures of the
electromagnetic field strength of the transport medium of light.
All electromagnetic fields
originate in the subatomic electric charges in matter. This derivation of the speed of light was
an incredible achievement and has been time tested for the last 150 years. However, since (1)
light travels through empty space from distant celestial bodies and (2) electromagnetic fields
only come from matter, it was assumed in the late 1800s that there must be some fixed
ethereal matter (aether/ether) in deep space to provide an electromagnetic medium for light to
travel through from distant celestial bodies. This fixed material ether throughout the universe
was considered ethereal because (1) celestial bodies could also travel through it without
friction and (2) light could travel through it with negligible attenuation (loss of intensity).
In the 1880s Albert Michelson and Edward Morley conducted experiments using a light
wave interferometer to determine the speed of the Earth traveling through this fixed, universal
ether since there should be a Doppler effect of light (change of light speed), depending on the
Earth’s speed through the fixed ether. However, there was no Doppler effect at any time or in
any direction. The Earth is not traveling through any material ether which was postulated in
the late 1800s as the electromagnetic medium for light transport through deep space. Einstein
in his 1905 theory of special relativity stated that light (1) has a constant speed in deep space
(300,000 kilometers per second) regardless of the reference frame of its origin or the frame of
any observer and (2) has no medium of transport. At about the same time, Einstein developed
his famous equation, E = m
, which every child on Earth knows. Einstein affirmed with this
equation that matter can be converted to energy and vice versa, using his constant speed of
light as the conversion factor. Presently, astronomical distances are measured in terms of
light-years, the time it takes for light to travel at Einstein’s constant speed in one year, instead
of kilometers or miles (one light year = 9 x
kilometers). Einstein’s ideas about the nature
and speed of light are the sacrosanct centerpieces of modern relativity, including general
relativity, the macrocosm of modern physics.
Our understanding of the nature of matter is presently clearer than when Einstein
affirmed his medium-less, constant speed of light theory in 1905. Matter is composed of
subatomic electric charges (electrons, protons, neutrons). The electromagnetic fields of these
2 subatomic charges extend into infinity, supplying an electromagnetic medium for light to travel
through the universe, howbeit weak in deep space. Maxwell’s derivation of the speed of light
states that the speed of light is inversely proportional to the electromagnetic strength of light’s
transport medium. As the electromagnetic field strength increases (higher permittivity and
permeability), then the speed of light will decrease. For instance, in diamonds, nature’s
strongest material, the electromagnetic strength is strong so that the speed of light decreases
to one half of its speed in air or a vacuum. On the contrary, as the electromagnetic field
strength decreases, as would happen in deep space where the electromagnetic fields of the
subatomic electric charges in the matter of celestial bodies become very weak, then the speed
of light will increase according to Maxwell’s derivation. Although there is no place in the
Universe where the electromagnetic field strength (the product of permittivity and permeability
in the denominator of Maxwell’s equation) becomes zero, these electromagnetic parameters
(permittivity and permeability) will approach zero and the speed of light will approach infinity in
interstellar and intergalactic space.
Not only has Maxwell’s derivation experimentally withstood the test of time without
exception here on the Earth, two phenomena also indicate that Maxwell’s derivation is true in
the vacuum of space far from Earth. Two space probes, Pioneer 10 & 11, were sent on a tour
of the planets in our solar system beyond Pluto into deep space. Until contact was lost in
about 2003, the position of Pioneer 10 was determined from radio transmission times
assuming Einstein’s constant speed of light and compared to its position from a Newtonian
gravitational calculation. Over time the probe appeared to be closer according to the signal
transmission than the Newtonian positions and the error became greater with the passage of
time and the distance from the center of our solar system.
Since the subatomic
electromagnetic fields from the matter in our solar system became weaker as Pioneer 10
moved farther into deep space, then the speed of the signal (speed of light) will increase
according to Maxwell’s speed of light derivation. The lapsed time of the transmission signal
from the Earth to the probe and back again will take less time to travel and the probe’s position
determined using Einstein’s constant speed would appear to be closer than it really is. This
effect happens and is known as the Pioneer Anomaly.
Inversely, the speed of light in space will decrease as light approaches the center of the
electric charge of a celestial system. In the 1960s, Irwin Shapiro bounced x-rays (traveling at
the speed of light) off of the planets of Mercury and Venus which are to the inside of Earth’s
3 orbit and closer to the electromagnetic center of our solar system. In Shapiro’s experiment the
x-rays traveled in the vacuum of space slower than the Einstein’s constant light speed and the
result of this experiment is called the Shapiro Delay Effect. Some physicists would attribute
this effect to general relativity, but that assumption is wrong, as also in the case of the Pioneer
Anomaly, because a gravity Doppler effect (change of light speed) will not happen for a signal
coming and going to the same gravitational equipotential (same gravitational strength) location
(the Earth’s surface in both the Pioneer and Shapiro cases).
The implications of this Maxwellian speed of light are interesting:
(1) Scotty, the principal engineer on the Star Trek Enterprise space ship, really could have a
warp drive as multiples of Einstein’s light speed in interstellar space. In fact, with the right
propulsion system we could visit the most distant galaxies in just a few years traveling at
nearly infinite speeds but less than the Maxwellian speed of light in deep intergalactic space.
(2) Adam and Eve could probably have seen all of the 7,000 celestial bodies visible to the
naked eye on the sixth day of Creation.
(3) In accordance with Maxwell’s equation, we can see today the most distant galaxies with our
most powerful telescopes. Maxwellian light could travel from the most distant galaxies in only a
few years, much less than 7,000 years.
(4) The biblical account of Creation in six days of twenty-four hours each could easily have
taken place less than 7,000 years ago as an historical-grammatical hermeneutic of Genesis 111 indicates.
4 Light from Distant Galaxies:
New or Ancient Light? Maxwell or Einstein? New or Old Universe?
5 Below is a photo taken in one trillionth of a second of a light wave from a laser traveling
in a Coke bottle of water from the bottom to the top of the bottle. This photo is possible in
water because a light wave illuminates the surrounding water molecules as it travels through
the bottle, losing its energy but allowing the light path to be seen in the photo. Light waves
traveling down in clear ocean water lose enough energy so that there is total darkness at less
than 3,000 feet of water depth even from the sunlight at the equator. This photo below would
not be possible in deep space because there is almost no loss of light wave energy even
traveling over trillions of trillions of miles of deep space.
Photo (10
Seconds) of Light Wave Traveling in Coke Bottle
6